Warsaw. Professor Adam Myjak is dead. “We say goodbye to a great artist, a special man”

Adam Myjak, a sculptor and teacher, is dead. He was a rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw six times. He died at the age of 78. – Many empty places can be filled after some time. Nobody will fill the void after Adam Myjaku – said former dean of the sculpture department of the Academy of Fine Arts prof. Janusz Pastwa.

“With great sadness we accepted information about the death of Prof. Adam Myjak, an outstanding sculptor and pedagogue, a longtime rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Professor Myjak for his artistic and pedagogical activities was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituting and the Gold Medal for the Gloria Artis Golden Medal” – MKIDN said on Saturday.

“He had a huge influence on the image of the academy, taking care of its good name, tradition and prestige,” the university wrote. “We say goodbye to a great artist, an exceptional man, an indisputable authority. Professor, greatly distinguished for the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts and Polish Culture,” reads on the website of the Academy of Fine Arts.

Adam Myjak was born on January 3, 1947 in Stary Sącz. In the mid -1960s, he began studying the Faculty of Sculptures of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw under the direction of Stanisław Słonina, Stanisław Kulon and Marian Wnuk. After defending the thesis with Jan B. Chmielewski, he permanently associated with his home university. In the years 1979–1981 he stayed on a scholarship Wilhelm Lehmbruck in Duisburg in Germany, where at the university at the Faculty of Art.

“He created his own recognizable style”

“I am still in a deep and tragic amazement. I could expect everything, but not that he would leave now and so quickly. Adam retarded too fast. He had plans for the future, he wanted to retire and create further. Until recently, I encouraged him to do it. ASP prof. Janusz Pastwa.

He emphasized that they met 60 years ago in Dziekanka, at the beginning of their studies at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts.

“Our friendship survived difficult times. In the 1980s, we made a monument to the Katyn Dolinka in Powązki Military. The communist authorities wanted us to change the inscription on the board, that we would write that the crime in Katyn was committed by the Germans, not the Soviets. The officers came to us, they tried to hear us, they even looked at, they even He went to the magazine for 10 years, but we persevered and did not bend ” – he explained.

He added that in the mid -1960s they both discussed hours about art, sometimes they disagreed on some issues, but these were extremely constructive discussions that turned into numerous joint projects and activities.

“Adam as a rector conducted the Academy of Fine Arts for really difficult times of political and economic changes. The academy looks different today, better, developed and developed – and this is largely his merit. No one else could combine the work of the lecturer, creating with the responsibility of the rector's function. I was a bit afraid of it, but he did not cope with it. He did not cope with it. An unbelievable way reconciled these two seemingly contrary to the appearance of functions, “he emphasized.

Prof. The pastwa explained that at an art university, the relationship between lecturers and students look different than e.g. at the faculties at the university. This bond is born with joint creation, on the open air, and not only during a lecture discussing a given issue.

He reminded that lectures by prof. Adam Myjak enjoyed great esteem and real respect for students. “He could talk to them, discuss. He helped them because they came with his problems, and he always remained open, devoted to people. He could listen to them, advise them. He never escaped indifference. Many people owe him a lot. At the sculpture department there was a work ethos, even a cult of work and creation” – he assessed.

The former dean reminded that prof. Myjak managed to create their own recognizable style. “Large surfaces, dramatic cuts and breaking the material, sometimes the edges sharp as a rock breakthrough, usually contrasted with a soft, insane form. This distinguished his work from the works of thousands of other creators” – he assessed.

“Many empty places can be filled after some time. Nobody will fill the voids after Adam Myjak,” summed up prof. Prey.

Author of the Homo Homini monument

Adam Myjak was the rector of the capital asp six times. He ran a sculpture studio there. He was also a graphic editor of the magazine “Orientation” and the Literary Monthly “Nowy Word”.

In addition to the sculpture, he had monumental projects and projects, undertaken, among others with Antoni Janusz Pastwa, with whom they won the competition for the monument in the Katyn Valley in Powązki Military. They designed a granite monument with the inscription “Polish soldiers resting in the Katyn region”. The assembly of the monument was interrupted after the intervention of the USSR embassy in Warsaw, when the authors did not agree to the inscription that the perpetrators of the crime in Katyn were Germans. Since 1995, the monument has been standing on Kamionek in Warsaw.

Adam Myjak was, among others The author of the Homo Homini monument in Kielce dedicated to the assassination of the World Trade Center buildings in New York (2006). He had over 100 individual exhibitions in his achievements, both in the country and abroad. In 2006 an individual exhibition took place in Warsaw's Zachęta, and a year later in the center of Polish sculpture in Orońsko.

In 2013 at the European Music Center Krzysztof Penderecki opened a permanent gallery of Adam Myjak, in which the works of 10 sculptures donated by the author are displayed. A permanent gallery of works of the creator was organized at the headquarters of the Theater Practices in Gardzienice (2015). In 2019, he received the Award of Cyprian Kamil Norwid “Work of Life” for lifetime work.

He has been awarded and awarded many times

On November 28, 2019, at a solemn meeting of the Scientific Council of the Lviv National Academy of Fine Arts, prof. Myjak received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa. On this occasion, an exhibition presenting his work was opened at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Lviv.

Prof. Myjak was the head of the Sculpture Department at the Faculty of Arts at the Maria Curie -Skłodowska University in Lublin. Together with the director of the Grand Theater – National Opera Waldemar Dąbrowski, he ran the “Opera” gallery at the Grand Theater.

For artistic achievements of prof. Myjak has been awarded and awarded many times, including Bronze Cross of Merit, the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta and the Gold Medal of Merit to Culture Gloria Artis “.